DotA vs HoN
Introduction This guide is mainly written for people who played the popular Warcraft 3 map Defence of the Ancients (DotA) for a while, got familiar with it and now made the transition to Heroes of Newerth (HoN). It will note most of the HoN items and heroes which have an equivalent in DotA, as well as new features of the game. This guide is not meant for people who are completely new to HoN and DotA. Starting out Options and Controls The first thing you will see when you start the game is the login screen. At this moment it is required to be logged in to be able to play a game as local games are not yet supported in the beta version. Take some time to configure all the options in the Game Options menu, especially the Controls and Interface menus. A feature that a lot of people have been missing in DotA is the ability to set your own keybinds, like binding the usage of an item in your inventory to a special mouse button (which was not directly possible in Warcraft 3). An important option from the Interface menu is the Always Show Health Bars option. Game Lobby If you click the Play Online button from the Main Menu, the Game Lobby will pop up, with the HoN chat screen and Friends list docked at the bottom of the screen. You can view a list of available games by clicking the Game List button. You can apply filters to the current view by selection options on the left hand of this panel. Most DotA players will immediately notice the Type and game options that are indicated by icons in the games list. HoN currently supports five gametypes which are well known from DotA: * Normal mode (AP) * Single Draft (SD) * Random Draft (RD) * Banning Draft (BD) (this is similar to Captains Draft in DotA) * Death Match (DM) And the various game options: * All Heroes: enables both Legion and Hellbourne to pick heroes from both factions. * Random Hero: picks a random hero for all players (like the AR game mode). * Easy Mode: the EM gametype from dota - awarding extra money to players. * No Leavers: if this option is enabled, you can't join if your leaver percentage is too high. * Shuffle Team: shuffles all players in the game lobby, to balance the chances of victory for both factions. The game lobby works much the same as DotA. When you join a game, you can select a slot and switch teams as you like. The host can shuffle teams and lock players on a slot (those players will not be shuffled). Picking a hero is always done in the same way: The Legion players are aligned to the left, the Hellbourne to the right and in the middle is the grid with selectable heroes. The number of heroes you can select varies per game mode (AP/RD/BD/SD). If you hover your mouse over the heroes you will see a description of their stats and skills. Selecting a random hero is done by clicking the dice icon at the top of the screen, this will also give you 250 extra starting gold in AP mode (does NOT give extra gold in SD/RD/BD modes). Repicking and swapping can be done before clicking ready or timer expiration. *Repicking allows you to put your chosen hero back into the pool of available heros and pick a new one. This is accomplished by clicking the tiny arrow above your hero portrait, and costs 350 gold. *Swapping allows you to swap heros with another player on your team. It is accomplished by clicking the arrow icon next to the hero portrait of who you want to swap with. If someone else has already offered to swap with you, their portrait will have gold arrows circling it, clicking on it will swap with them.) Game interface * Personal stats are indicated in the top left corner: ** Hero portrait ** Level ** HP bar ** Mana bar ** Buffs and active effects ** Teammates are displayed under the hero's portrait * Game statistics are displayed in the center top of the screen: ** Stats of your hero on the left: Kills / Deaths / Assists ** Your creep stats on the right: Kills / Denies ** Elapsed game time in the center. ** Kills of both factions (Legion / Hellbourne) on the bottom. * The regular DotA scoreboard can be viewed by clicking Scores in the top right corner of the screen, as well as a smaller version that only displays hero levels. * The HUD on the bottom of the screen is mostly the same as in DotA: ** The purple bar around the hero portrait indicates the experience progress on the current level. * Leveling is done by clicking the arrow to the right of the hero level or pressing the L key (by default). This will pop-up a button for each skill and a stats button (this is done automatically when leveling up). Heroes Ported Heroes HoN DotA Differences Agility Andromeda Shendelzare Silkwoo the Vengeful Spirit - Blood Hunter Strygwyr the Bloodseeker - Chronos Darkterror the Faceless Void - Corrupted Disciple Razor the Lightning Revenant - Magebane Magina the Anti-Mage Changed second and third skill. Moon Queen Luna the Moon Rider - Night Hound Rikimaru the Stealth Assassin - Sand Wraith Mercurial the Spectre - Slither Lesale Deathbringer the Venomancer - Soulstealer Nevermore the Shadow Fiend - Swiftblade Yurnero the Juggernaut Changed second skill. Valkyrie Mirana Nightshade, Priestess of the Moon - Wildsoul Syllabear the Lone Druid - Intelligence Blacksmith Aggron Stonebreaker the Ogre Magi - Defiler Krobelus the Death Prophet - Demented Shaman Dazzle the Shadow Priest Changed second skill Glacius Rylai the Crystal Maiden - Hellbringer Demnok Lannik the Warlock Changed first 3 skills. Ophelia Chen the Holy Knight - Plague Rider Kel'Thuzad the Lich - Pollywog Priest Rhasta the Shadow Shaman - Pyromancer Lina Inverse the Slayer - Soul Reaper Rotund'jere the Necrolyte - Succubus Atropos, the Bane Elemental - Tempest Darchrow the Enigma - Thunderbringer Zeus the Lord of Olympia - Torturer Leshrac the Malicious, Tormented Soul - Vindicator Nortrom the Silencer - Voodoo Jester Vol'Jin the Witch Doctor Changed second skill. Wretched Hag Akasha the Queen of Pain - Strength Accursed Abaddon the Lord of Avernus - Armadon Rigwarl the Bristleback - Behemoth Rigor Stonehoof the Earthshaker - Devourer Pudge the Butcher - Hammerstorm Sven the Rogue Knight - Jeraziah Purist Thunderwrath the Omniknight Changed third skill. Keeper of the Forest Rooftrellen the Treant Protector - Legionnaire Mogul Khan the Axe - Magmus Crixalis the Sand King - Pebbles Tiny the Stone Giant Changed third skill. Pestilence Slardar the Slithereen Guard - Pharaoh Rattletrap the Clockwerk Goblin - Rampage Barathrum the Spiritbreaker - War Beast Banehallow the Lycanthrope - New heroes * Arachna - Close relation to DotA "Drow Ranger" and "Netherdrake" * Dark Lady * Deadwood * Engineer * Electrician - Close relation to DotA "Medusa The Gorgon" * Forsaken Archer * Kraken * Madman - Close relation to DotA "Nerubian Weaver" and "Troll Warlord" * Maliken * Nymphora - Close relation to DotA "Keeper of Light" * Pandamonium * Puppet Master * Predator - Close relation to DotA "Lifestealer" * Scout - Close relation to DotA "Bounty Hunter" and "Dwarven Sniper" * Zephyr Items Shops One of the greatest changes is the way shops are handled. Every base now contains only one building where all items and recipes can be purchased. The shop can be viewed by clicking the shop while standing in the fountain of the allied base, or by pressing the B key (by default). * Basic items can be found in the left column, recipes in the right column. ** The lower left two shops are special shops located in the jungle. * It is possible to buy parts of the recipe by clicking the recipe you want. A pop-up window will show the required parts, which can be purchased immediately (instead of going to the right basic item shop first). Other differences between DotA and HoN * The Sentinel and Scourge factions are equivalent to the Legion and Hellbourne factions, respectively. There is no Neutral faction in HoN. * Games created by players are remotely hosted on S2Games' servers. This means that everyone will experience the same latency, assuming everyone has the same connection. The game is not dependant on the prescence of the host. * The abilities of every hero are controlled by pressing the Q, W, E and R keys (by default). Additional skills (i.e. Wildsoul's War Cry) are extended to D, F and G if necessary. * Players who leave the game during play can reconnect within five minutes. While the player remains disconnected, the hero will be shared by all remaining players, as in DotA. If the five minutes limit passes, the hero will be terminated. Terminated hero's gold will be split amonst remaining teammates and Items will drop in faction's pool. * Game statistics are automatically collected after playing a game and can be viewed from the Match Stats panel. * Health bars can be switched on by pressing the apostrophe ' key or permanently by selecting the option from the Interface Menu. Mechanics Orb Effects Orb Effects are known in Heroes of Newerth as modifiers. There are two different types of modifiers: *Attack Modifiers are buffs that do not stack with other attack modifiers of a different type. Some examples include Frostwolf's Skull (Eye of Skadi), Shield Breaker (Stygian Desolator), and Accursed's Sear (Abaddon the Lord of Avernus' Frostmourne). *Exclusive Modifiers are buffs that do not stack with buffs of the same type, but do stack with buffs of different types. These modifiers include Lifesteal, Slow, Mana Burn, Bash, and Chain Lightning. Movespeed Modifiers (Haste and Slow) According to a thread on the official forums here... Dota movespeed and HoN movespeed modifiers are handled differently. In DotA, all modifiers are added together and then applied to a hero's movespeed. In HoN, modifiers are applied seperately and stack upon eachother. For Example, lets say you have a buff that gives you 20% move speed, and then get hit by a debuff that slows by 50%. *In DotA: The system adds together the two modifiers and applies them to base move speed. That means that you would have 70% movespeed. ** 100% movespeed * (1.2 - .5) = 70% movespeed. *In HoN: The system applies the modifiers seperately. That means that you would have 60% movespeed. ** 100% movespeed * 1.2 * .5 = 60% movespeed. Another important note: The haste rune provides max (522) movespeed, and units affected by it cannot be slowed. Category:Guides